End of July

Boy is July going out well. It's about a month late but we're getting July weather as we move into August. Tomorrow Stan & I are going to Parc Safari in Hemingford, Quebec, about 30 miles from here. He's never been there & I haven't been since the mid-'80s so it should be interesting. Parc Safari is an amusement park on the order of Busch Gardens, of course nowhere near as big, but a zoo and water park and rides, etc. Stan didn't even balk at the $35 Can. ticket price! It should be fun.

Last week we went to Malone, NY and then to lovely Bombay, NY to fabric shop and to take Stan's antique clock in for repair. It's really criminal that I have to travel 50 miles to go to a fabric store. JoAnn Fabrics closed here last summer--the company is only keeping superstore open, I think was the reason given. That leaves me with WalMart and don't even get me started on that. But the trip is a lovely one, up past Chazy Lake, through Chateauguay, NY, almost to Canada. The clock man is very close to the casino run by the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, and since we have to go back to pick up the clock I'm going to see about Stan driving the extra mile, literally, to the casino. We went once before and were both underwhelmed since neither of us is really a gambler. But I'd do it again just to do it!

Mr. Emery, the clock repairman, reminded me of a ditzy version of Stan, only he works on clocks instead of antique fishing rods. We actually picked out a "new" clock, an antique for the fireplace mantel, only to get home and discover that because of the way the infinitely UNwise builder of this house did the wall above the mantel, it's only 3" deep. No clock there. So we called and said we couldn't buy that clock but we're going to look at hanging clocks instead.

And as for the fabric shopping, it was definitely successful. One result is a new outfit for Kyrin that's the picture at the top of this post.

Color My Garden

I guess the title should be Color IN My Garden but I just like the looks of the title the way it is. I took a few pictures just now because so many things are flowering. The problem is that the garden is kind of big and the flowers aren't in clumps like they are in magazines. So this is the best I could do. But I think it's very nice. So here it is from the front.


And here's a shot where I tried to catch some of the color.



And this last one is a pretty nice one of the way I covered up the old well.


I still haven't remembered to check to see if the the gazing globe's swirls do really glow at dusk!

This is my garden in early July. Things are blooming but it's hard to capture how nice it really looks. The big pot is a new addition--found in the basement, moved out to this house from my old house and forgotten. Now it's a perfect cover for the defunct well and a great place for a gazing globe. I'll be out to get a new photo tomorrow, probably between thunderstorms. Weather right now is more like August: very cool nights and days that aren't as hot as August but not as hot as they should be in July either. And WE certainly aren't suffering drought conditions!

Starla, the ex-librarian?

So I just sent an e-mail to the woman who manages the information research course for which I wrote the textbook. I told her I won't be teaching in Fall semester (I had thought about it hard) and I probably won't teach in Spring semester either, although that's a bit more open. I actually said I'm ready to be finished with being a librarian. And while that was 1/2 my identity for a very long time (the other 1/2 was mom with the third 1/2 being wife) I may be ready to let it go. I sent my beautiful leather briefcase and datebook/wallet/phone & address book/instant note-keeper to my sister Allison, who can use them far more than I. They're in the mail as I write--mailed Saturday--so a very visible part of the librarian is gone.

I have, not illogically, mixed feelings about this step. Most of us in the U.S. have our jobs as a huge part of our interior identities, so consciously, intentionally walking away from that is a major shock to many internal systems. I'm working hard at remembering to take each day as a new one. I have no plans right now for anything, except that Stan mentioned that he wants to go to Parc Safari maybe this week. That's a pretty neat zoo/amusement park attraction just over the border in Canada. (Looks like I'm into //s today!) I haven't been there since I took the girls and my sister Siara and her family there in ... ... 1990? 1988? Who knows! I just looked at the Web site and discovered that it costs $35/person. Since the Canadian dollar is so close to the U.S. dollar right now maybe we won't go! I'll let Stan decide that one.

Back to the idea of being fully retired. Writing this right now is actually a demonstration of the whole retired thing: I have a couple of things to do but if I feel like writing in my blog, that's what I can do. Hmmm. Will I stay unemployed? Well, I did run into the college Provost's wife working at the closure of JoAnn's Fabric's and she said she works through a temp agency whenever she feels like it. I figure if the Provost's wife can do it, I could. We shall see.

All the heavy thinking I want to do at the moment. Just to assuage my German conscience I'd better do the housework chore I assigned myself for today.

Later.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th to everyone. It's raining here and I hope it keeps up for several more hours; we really need it. (I've never been able to figure out why the earth can't store extra water for times when it's needed. That would have been a sensible evolutionary move in my view!) Anyway, my garden would appreciate about a 4-hour soft rain. I doubt we'll get that but all is appreciated.

The rain does put a dent in many Fourth of July celebrations--the type with fireworks, at least. Here, the mayor of lovely Pburgh decided to save money by moving the fireworks to Friday, the 6th. That way it's part of the sailboat race "Mayor's Cup" celebration and there's no need for a 2d fireworks display. So for us the rain is really not a problem. I sympathize for those whose fireworks will be rained out though.

I'm actually doing this post because my youngest sister, Siara, took one of the best photos of me that I've seen in a long time. It was at Jane's wedding so I'm all dressed up, wearing make-up and everything. Well, at least eye make-up and lipstick, which is all I ever wear. Anyway, I really like the photo. Here it is.